


when all is said and done

by bitterbones



Series: Reylo One-Shots/Short Pieces [3]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Ben lives, F/M, Fluff, Grooming, Light Smut, Post TROS, Post-Canon, Prompt Fill, Reylo HEA, SO MUCH FLUFF, Self Care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:14:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22794562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitterbones/pseuds/bitterbones
Summary: For the prompt: “Rey and Ben take turns brushing each other’s hair- they both have a tendency to not care for their own bodies (Rey being a desert dweller and Ben just.... depressed) but they care for each other to make up for it, keeping each other healthy with a series of checks and balances.”One night, laying in bed side-by-side, Rey’s honey gaze turns to him, observing him in the guttering candlelight. “When was the last time you bathed, Ben?” She runs delicate fingers through his hair and they catch on a knot.Blinking, he struggles to remember. A week maybe? He doesn’t think to very often, it feels pointless, or he simply forgets. Energy is hard to come by these days. So many excuses for such a simple question.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Reylo One-Shots/Short Pieces [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1640707
Comments: 37
Kudos: 246





	when all is said and done

**Author's Note:**

> Loved this prompt, so I turned it into its own little one-shot.

When all is said and done- the war won, the First Order defeated and the remnants of Palpatine’s scourge purged from the galaxy- Ben Solo is exiled. 

It makes sense, and he had known something of the sort was coming. Without his turning the war was as good as lost, and Rey as good as dead. She had argued hard in his defense, but in the end he is still a war criminal in the eyes of the Resistance. Party to the destruction of the New Republic. Murderer of Han Solo. 

It is only Rey’s recounting of her miraculous resurrection, and then his own, that stays the calls for execution. It was Leia’s love and dying wish that had spared him. Who are they to revoke her will? 

“He must be gone by first light tomorrow,” Poe declares, his face shadowed and grim. He knows about the dyad. He knows what this means. 

Tight lipped, Rey leads him away from the Resistance Tribunal, back to the quarters they have been sharing on the capitol world of Chandrila. They strip, and shower, and make love like they do every night. Then, once they are settled naked beneath scratchy sheets, bathed in darkness, Ben speaks. 

“You should stay here.” He tries to hide the strain in his voice, but he knows she can hear it, feel it through their bond. “This is my punishment, not yours. Your friends are here, your family.” 

“You’re my family, too.” She rushes to argue, one hand capturing his beneath the blanket while the other rises to caress his cheek in the dark. Her feather light touch sends sparks jumping across his skin, searing where a scar once laid claim to his flesh. 

“I don’t want you to give up a chance at a life to be with me. I’ll never be able to leave the outer rim, everything will always be difficult. Every day will be a struggle.” Already he can feel the icy fingers of depression sinking into his core. He doesn’t want to be alone, again. He doesn’t want to be apart from Rey any more than he wants to lose a limb, but he won’t be the one to hold her back from happiness. 

Ben makes a muffled noise of surprise when Rey lunges through the darkness and kisses him hard on the mouth. They’re still adjusting to being physical with one another, neither of them are used to casual touch, and they’ve already had sex tonight. 

Still, he melts into the warm, soft press of her lips, eyelids fluttering shut. Through the bond she ends the discussion; her rebuttal to his concerns is a single sentence; _two that are one_. 

Rey goes where Ben goes, to hell and back if necessary. And she will do so gladly, because they are a dyad in the Force, two that are one, a single being rendered into two disparate souls. 

She rolls him onto his back insistently and straddles him, taking him into the wet warmth between her thighs. Ben moans, fingers digging into her hips, aiding her as she rides him, making tiny noises in the back of her throat. Even in the dark she is beautiful. 

And she belongs to him, and him to her, forever. Two that are one. 

They will leave before first light, together. 

*

They make their home on a world so distant from the core that its name is only a string of letters and numbers. 

It is lush and green and wild, covered in mountainous terrain and verdant jungle. There is no native sentient population, only a few scattered trading posts which they intentionally settle far away from. Anonymity is a good thing in such an unfamiliar place. 

_The Falcon_ serves as their initial home as they construct a small cabin from local materials. Then it serves as cold storage for meat, and as a very large lawn ornament. 

All is peaceful, monotonous even. 

They quickly fall back into those old habits which had possessed them before they were swept up into the war. So far from civilization, Rey feels like a scavenger once more, and Ben is wrought with guilt over having dragged her so far from home. 

It sinks its claws in deep, tearing his chest up from the inside. At night dark dreams often bring him awake panting, tears streaking his face. He sees Hosnian Prime, and Han Solo. He sees Finn cut open on the snow. He sees Luke Skywalker, and Rey’s wet eyes in the throne room, fire raining down around them. 

He can’t forget. Rey doesn’t push him. 

He knows she struggles as well, often disappearing into the depths of the jungle for whole days. Returning with scrap or fruit, covered in mud head-to-toe. A scavenger’s spirit reawakened by her self imposed exile. 

One night, laying in bed side-by-side, Rey’s honey gaze turns to him, observing him in the guttering candlelight. 

“When was the last time you bathed, Ben?” She runs delicate fingers through his hair and they catch on a knot. 

Blinking, he struggles to remember. A week maybe? He doesn’t think to very often, it feels pointless, or he simply forgets. Energy is hard to come by these days. So many excuses for such a simple question. 

He returns her look. There is a smudge of dirt beneath her lower lip, a remnant of her foray into the forest earlier that day. 

“I should ask you the same,” he mumbles, letting the pad of his thumb run along the filth. 

“Everything that happened,” Rey ignores his comment, focusing on his own self care over her own. He will reciprocate. “It’s eating you up, you aren’t taking care of yourself. I see your dreams sometimes, you know.” 

Ben cringes, ashamed. 

Rey continues, edging closer. Her small fingers caught at the sleeve of his shirt, tracing along his bicep, “I can’t stop your dreams anymore than I can stop my own.”

He’s seen them, kissed her awake from them. Always someone leaving her behind on Jakku, sometimes even him. Nothing hurts more than knowing her subconscious still fears he might leave her. 

“But I can help keep your body strong, and clean.” She kisses his chin, eyes intense. 

His own hand drifts to her hair, finding it greasy and knotted. “The same goes for you. Being out here reminds you of Jakku, doesn’t it? The isolation, the separation from the people you love. But I’m here now, it’s different this time.” 

There are tears in her eyes, and she nods. A mutual agreement to care for one another, to see each other through the difficulties of these circumstances. 

Rey slides from the bed, feet padding lightly across the hardwood floor. She spins, beaming wide and beautiful when she faces him. “I’m going to draw us a bath.”

Ben smiles back, and she vanishes out the door into the balmy night. ‘Drawing a bath’ consists of using the Force to dunk a wooden tub into a nearby spring. It won’t take more than a minute. The water will be cold, but that isn’t so terrible in a place as hot and humid as this. 

He throws an extra few logs onto the fire and tugs his shirt over his head, tossing it into their laundry pile. Rey is right, his skin feels oily. He must reek. 

Rey returns, tub levitating in front of her. When she drops it in front of the fireplace some water sloshes out and over the sides. 

“Strip.” She commands, quirking an eyebrow at him. She doesn’t hide how she ogles the pale, broad expanse of his chest. 

“So demanding.” Ben teases, but he is already obliging, unbuckling his belt and shucking his linen trousers. He stands there for a moment, naked and awaiting further instruction from Rey, who is not-so-subtly eyeing his soft cock where it rests between his thighs. 

But this moment isn’t about sex, and she motions for him to get into the tub. 

“Aren’t you going to join me?” He questions, sinking into the cold water. 

Rey shakes her head, eyes suddenly determined, “No. This is about you.”

The conviction in her voice takes the breath from his lungs, and as she pours the first pitcher of water over his scalp, he presses three scarcely spoken words through their connection. 

_I love you_. 

She says nothing, but he can feel the heat of her skin as she cards her fingers through his hair, running a thick tonic over the strands to help detangle them. She reaches for a comb, and Ben closes his eyes, savoring each pass of its ivory teeth over his scalp. 

He had forgotten what it felt like to be groomed like this, to be completely and utterly placid under loving, gentle hands. 

Once his hair is free from knots she lathers it with shampoo and washes it away. Next she moves onto his body; his hands and thick arms. She kisses his palms and the tips of his fingers, then his jaw and collar bones as she runs a rag over his chest. 

When she is through he captures her mouth in a searing kiss, commanding softly through their bond; _get in, it’s your turn._

Rey huffs obstinately, but obeys, stripping away her light tunic and capris. Ben hardly has a moment to ogle her lithe body before she is neck deep in the tub. Sniffing awkwardly. Her cheeks are red, blushing cutely, suddenly embarrassed. 

“Turn around.” Ben breathes, gaze following the graceful curve of her neck to where it disappears beneath the water’s clouded surface. 

Rey does, and Ben begins with her hair. Tonic and comb, arms and hands. He cleans the dirt out from under her fingernails and kisses along the column of her throat, feather light until he reaches her shoulder. 

His cock stirs beneath the water’s surface, but he ignores it in favor of tending to her. He wipes the smudge of dirt from her chin and carefully runs the rag over her breasts and stomach. She is all freckles and tawny hide and wiry muscle, and Ben has never seen anything so beautiful in his life. 

He thinks he might adjust to this new system well, if it is what they choose to settle on. They will care for each other, since they cannot adequately care for themselves. 

_Two that are one._ Rey thinks at him, and he echoes the sentiment. 

When they are through. Cleaned of grease and grime, both flush and eager from touching, Ben hoists Rey up and out of the water and kisses her hard, wide palms groping at her rear. 

They find themselves wound up in bed, soaking the sheets in more ways than one as he presses into her from behind, Mouthing along her freckled shoulders Ben sheathes himself in her tight, wet body. Moaning into her flesh, their minds meld in the way only a bonded pair can and they lose themselves in a flash of blinding white pleasure. 

In the morning, when Ben rouses, the dawn not having yet come to life with the first bird songs, he untangles himself from his love and reaches for a comb. 

When Rey wakes soon after, he brushes her hair free of the snags of sleep and sex. Then Rey returns the favor, going so far as to weave a little braid along his left temple, tucking it behind his ear. 

She kisses him, and mouths the words, “I love you,” against his full lips. 

For the first time since his exile was proclaimed, Ben Solo doesn’t feel so guilty. So long as they have each other, Ben and Rey, it seems things will be alright. 

_Two that are one._ He remembers. 

_Two that are one_. Rey echoes. 

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you think!
> 
> Tumblr: [dvrkrey](https://dvrkrey.tumblr.com/) (Where this was originally posted) 
> 
> Twitter: [bitt3rbones](https://twitter.com/bitt3rbones)


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